Weekly Radio Address: Fighting Fraud in Wisconsin

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Even before I took office, I knew we needed to curb wasteful state spending and eliminate fraud in Wisconsin, so one of the first things I did when we took office was create the Commission on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.

Based on the findings of the commission, we created the Department of Health Services Office of the Inspector General to prevent fraud and improve our public assistance programs.

The Department of Health Services provides almost $9 billion in benefits to more than 1.2 million people throughout Wisconsin every year. To ensure the integrity of our public assistance programs, we rely on the Office of the Inspector General to prevent fraud, save the state, and more importantly, save the taxpayers money. And the savings have steadily increased at the state and at the local level over the years.

Today, I’m traveling to Green Bay and Sturtevant to highlight the good work the Office of the Inspector General is doing for the state taxpayers. Government services, including public assistance programs like FoodShare, are important trampolines that help people through unforeseen challenges or setbacks.

But when people abuse the system, they’re stealing taxpayer-funded resources and putting the programs at risk for those who truly need them.

My thanks to the Department of Health Services, the Office of the Inspector General, and to state, county, and local employees for their work to detect and to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse by protecting the integrity of these crucial programs.

As state officials, it is our job to be good stewards of your money – the taxpayers’ dollar – and ensure the services we provide our citizens are free from abuse. We will continue to work with the Office of the Inspector General and other state agencies so Wisconsin government is effective, efficient, and accountable to the citizens of our state.